Wide-Format Printing: The Future Is Now

How has UV technology changed the wide-format market?

UV technology has totally changed the wide-format market. It has enabled printers to reach new speeds that were once unheard of. When we started using UV technology just a couple of years ago, we only had 24 printheads in our roll-to-roll printers. Now we have managed to double that with 48 heads in most of our machines. The dry time has been drastically cut allowing us to pack in the output with the same great quality with much more speed. Just a few simple modifications on “stepping” of the UV printers produce high quality and speed.

– Cory Brock – Director of Marketing, Gandinnovations

All photos are product examples of Pixus Digital Printing.

What niches offer the greatest growth opportunity? Why?

Unlike aqueous, solvent and oil-based inkjet inks, UV-curable inks can be printed onto almost any substrate, both flexible and rigid, coated and uncoated. (These include papers, plastic substrates such as vinyls, polycarbonate and polyesters, as well as textiles, wood, glass, ceramics and more.) UV technology allows operators/users to print onto substrates that were not possible previously. These new abilities have opened many new creative doors for the designer and for wide-format manufacturing processes.

What growth do you foresee in this market?

We continue to see the market evolve and its adoption of UV print technology expand. Cost reduction in production continues to be a target area for signage and graphics producers. Wide-format printers are looking to re-establish themselves as market leaders coming out of a recession. Historically, recovery from a challenging recession always brings about unexpected change. Often the latest technologies see a boost of activity as credit capital becomes available for system upgrades and new system purchases.

Source information available at PrintingNews.Com Magazine Tours of the Pixus Digital Printing facility are available by calling 800-738-0706. Pixus is solely responsible for the content, views and opinions shared in this article. Send comments, inquiries and suggestions to Mike Latiolais at mike@pixus.com